Couples back in the game after experimental back treatment

Updated 12:00 am, Friday, October 7, 2011

Fred Couples is back in the game after an experimental surgery. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Fred Couples is back in the game after an experimental surgery. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Photo: Chris Trotman

Couples back in the game after experimental back treatment

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Fred Couples started his Thursday at 4 a.m. by making the drive from Austin to Houston. Couples has an Insperity Championship title to defend starting Friday, which meant teeing it up at 9 a.m. Thursday in a pro-am.

Some six hours after the first tee shot, Couples settled into a chair.

It being a day of the week that ends with "y," Couples sensed some rebellion from his back.

"It's a little bit of a toothache, but not crazy," Couples said. "And I am sleeping."

By the grace of an experimental treatment not approved in the United States, Couples has enough bounce in his step to try to defend a title he captured last October by shooting 29 on the back nine of the final round. Couples' back began to bother him two weeks later at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship to the point he couldn't sleep at night. The sleeplessness persisted to the point that after a 63rd-place finish at The Tradition at Shoal Creek in May, Couples was telling people close to him, "I quit."

"I can be miserable anyway," Couples said. "But no sleep/playing golf is not a good combination."

German therapy helps

Desperate times drove Couples to make the trek to Dusseldorf, Germany, for a treatment known as Orthokine therapy. Developed by orthopedic surgeon Peter Wehling and molecular biologist Julio Reinecke, the procedure involves using proteins derived from the patient's blood as medication. During a five-day regimen, Couples made six office visits.

"Takes 20 minutes for this procedure every day, and he talks to you for 10 minutes, and you go on your way," Couples said.

One of the patients who preceded Couples by a week, he said, was Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who was treating an arthritic right knee. Fellow golfer Vijay Singh went in for back treatment a few days after Couples and offered this testimonial: "It's worked miracles." Among the other reported patients of Wehling are former Rockets All-Star Tracy McGrady and Pope John Paul II.

"I felt better after seeing this guy than I felt when I was 30," Couples said. "It was bizarre."

After nearly a three-month break from the Champions Tour, Couples tied for 26th at the 3M Championship. He teed it up again two weeks later at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship and reeled in his first Champions Tour major, beating John Cook in a playoff.

More Information

Insperity Championship

When: Today-Sunday.

Where: The Woodlands Country Club.

Defending champion: Fred Couples.

Course map, parking info: Page C3

"I think it tells you how talented he is, really," said 2011 Champions Tour money leader Tom Lehman, who has won three times this season. "But we have always known that. No surprise at Fred. We have always known from the beginning of his incredible talent. It's still there."

Couples, a University of Houston alum, won 15 times on the PGA Tour. His signature victory game at the Masters in 1992, the year he rose to No. 1 in the world rankings. His last PGA Tour victory came in 2003 at the Shell Houston Open. His swing is so smooth and his manner so effortless, one of golf's great what-ifs is how much he might have accomplished if not riddled with back problems throughout his career.

"He's one of the longest guys out here," said Champions Tour rookie Brad Faxon. "But when you walk out by him on the practice tee, his back is so bad he has to tee balls up in a row so he doesn't have to bend over as much. Now that's bad. That's pretty serious. And he's won all over the world for a long time."

Golfing, sleeping again

As the weeks have passed, though, Couples is feeling more like 52, which he hit last Sunday, than 30. His doctor had warned that the back might be worse than the magnetic resonance imaging test showed, that Couples might not be an ideal candidate for the Orthokine therapy.

"He thought I would last six or eight months," Couples said. "This is three months (since the procedure). I feel OK. I don't feel as good as I did, but I was probably 90 percent after I came back from this doctor. The more I play, the more the pain slowly comes back. But it's nothing like it was."

Couples can envision going in three times a year for treatment if it continues to produce these results. It allows him to play in events such as the Insperity - which has 28 of the top 30 players on the money list even after the withdrawals of Kenny Perry, Peter Jacobsen and Bruce Lietzke - with a realistic chance to win. It allows him to play in such events and sleep.

"I feel stiff," Couples said. "Today I didn't feel that good. Tomorrow could be a little bit better. But I still get around."